August 8
Miles: 22.0
Mile Markers: 2067.7 – 2089.7
Miles to Canada: 566.1
Listening to: Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Mariella
Roses’ alarm went off at 5am this morning, but I was already awake. I didn’t sleep well having so many new people camping so close to me in their tents. I’m a light sleeper, and all the noises of people rolling around on their mats, snoring, sending Garmin messages – that little chirp. I stayed awake a good amount of the night.
Despite that, I was the first one on the trail at 6am exactly on the dot, and I went ahead, but needed to find a bathroom spot because there was no nothing near where we camped. Warpaint and Babs quickly passed me, and then Crib, and then Roses. I felt alone at the back of the pack, but I soon came to a clearing near some power lines and they were waiting taking a break, and so I caught up to them. Fonda was behind us, Turtle Blazing (literally).
We’re hiking 24 miles today to a campsite that is only 9 miles away from Timberline Lodge, which is where we’re planning to go for the buffet lunch tomorrow. It’s 44° out, which actually feels wonderful to be hiking in the cold – finally finally finally in my element. I can hike a lot faster and further in this weather. After about a week in my ankle brace, my ankle is actually starting to feel a lot better, and I don’t have the same kind of pain when walking, although the brace is already starting to fall apart, so I may have to get another one.
I keep ruminating, replaying conversations and weird little things that stuck out to me, that now make so much more sense. In hindsight, it always does. People often don’t pay enough attention to their language, and little things, strange word choices give away their true intentions, far before they often have the decency or courage to just say whatever it is. They don’t realize that writers notice every word though. And I think that after writing every day for 127 days in a row, I can consider myself a writer, as much as I can consider myself a backpacker.
A few days ago, he sent a message about a place in Olympic National Park saying I want to go on a road trip when I’m done with the trail. I had to ask for clarification if that was an invitation for me to come, because it didn’t seem like one. It was, apparently, but it didn’t feel inviting at all. The “I” statements felt like a dead giveaway even then that he wasn’t planning on hiking with me, and that thought had occurred to me, because every time I tried to bring up meeting up again on trail, he kept changing the subject, so when he actually said it out loud yesterday, it wasn’t actually much of a surprise, although I had hoped I was just reading too much into things. There were many little things I had noted in the last few weeks. Nothing is ever out of the blue. There are always clues, and I was always noticing these little things, hoping I was wrong, hoping they didn’t mean what I thought they did.
I had always asked him to be honest with me if he didn’t want to hike with me, to just say so and be honest about it instead of just leaving me behind, because that happened over and over. I guess he was finally being honest about wanting to hike his own hike and I could respect that, because if I’m being honest too – hiking with him was really stressful, and I have enjoyed hiking alone.
But the lying, the manipulation – I don’t know how to find a way to forgive that. There have been too many lies, too many manipulations. I can’t keep looking the other way.
I’m really glad not to be alone today. I really like hiking with this group. They are all faster than I am, but they take long breaks during the day and so I always catch up. They don’t take off as soon as I get there either. I get to hang out with them too.
Our first stop was at a water source, but I came to a clearing and heard what sounded like animal howling and it was the group just taking a break before the water source. Maybe the non-menacing animal howls I had been hearing in the forest, were actually just the boys.
We kept hiking, and everyone went ahead of me but I came to a junction with signs for trail magic! As I approached, I heard everyone cheering for me which was really nice. A trail angel named Carbs was making toast with eggs and coffee. Amazing! There were a bunch of hikers both – sobos and nobos.
I left before the group, and decided to skip the next water source because I still had enough water and decided to keep hiking so I could keep up with them. I was planning on stopping at one of the water sources about 12 miles in, but I got a message from Roses that the group was going to have lunch at Mini Crater Lake, which is a spring that is extremely blue, but a lot smaller than Crater Lake, obviously. At the entrance to the junction to the lake, I saw Aloha again!
We had lunch by the lake and I learned the origin stories of everyone’s trail names – Bap was related to opening beer bottle tops and pirates. Long story. Roses was like stop and smell the roses – very fitting especially because the day I hiked with her and Rocky, we did stop to enjoy the flowers. Crib was due to a mixup in phrasing when he said crib digger instead of meaning “cradle robber”. Warpaint took a nap during this conversation so I actually still don’t know how he got that name. They all kept brainstorming trail names wanting to give me one. The right one hasn’t come along yet though.
We took off again and our next break would be in another 4 miles at a stream before our last 6 miles to camp.
The 4 mile stretch felt the hardest – it was the hottest section of the day hiking uphill, but when I arrived at the water source, they told me they had only been there for about 10 minutes, so I feel like I’m getting much faster. My ankle is really not bothering me so much since I’ve been wearing the brace, which is amazing. Going uphill still hurts a little, but rather than a sharp pain with every step, there’s just kind of a dull ache. I’ll take that over stabbing pain anytime.
My ankle brace is already falling apart, and I’ve been putting leukeotape on it to prevent more friction with my shoes. I was trying to figure out how to get another ankle brace, and as we were sitting at the stream, Warpaint asked if anyone wanted an ankle brace. It was the exact same one that I bought! The trail provides.
Warpaint is from my town and his parents are coming to meet us at Timberline Lodge tomorrow. I asked if they could possibly hold onto my bear can for me which would save me from having to ship it home which is amazing. I guess they are holding gear for a bunch of other hikers as well. I’m excited to get rid of a bunch of stuff. I think making my pack as light as possible will help me hike more miles per day, hike faster, and feel better.
There’s something about being in Washington soon that makes me feel like I don’t need as much stuff because I live there and there are ways to get what I need in Washington.
The last 6 miles went by quickly. It was actually the first time any of us got a view of Mount Hood since it had been cloudy at the top of the other ascent with the snow which apparently was the other spot where it was possible to see Mount Hood. I’ve seen Mt Hood many times before, but this time it felt real that I was approaching Washington. 318 miles without stopping in a town, without a single zero day, hiking by myself. Until now anyway.
Our next stop would be the parking lot just before the lake where we had originally planned to camp, just 1 mile short. It turned out there was possible camping there, and the lake would very likely be super busy and it was also a 0.5 mile walk down to the water which we didn’t want to do. We were all eager to get to Timberline Lodge. When I got to the parking lot area, there was a picnic table that everyone was sitting at and they cheered when I walked up. That always feels nice. Especially after getting no cheers at Kennedy Meadows.
Bap had acquired a bottle of wine somehow from someone in the parking lot, and he told me to pull out my pot. Bap poured me a glass of wine and we all cheered with our pots. Bap has a history of being able of getting lots of free beers, presumably because of his accent, and there was a bet that he had to get some kind of free beer today. So he succeeded in his mission.
We ended up camping just 0.1 miles after the picnic table and set up our tents and had dinner together. They’re such a fun group, and by dinner, they were telling me I was part of the tramily now. We just joked around most of the night, and all headed to bed at 8:30. We have an early day tomorrow getting to the lodge, hopefully getting some showers, food and charging.
I headed back to my tent, feeling really good about the trail, about my new little tramily that I hope I can keep up with, and about finally having some of the tramily experiences on trail that I felt like I had missed out on previously. I felt really included, wanted, and like I belonged to the group – a very stark change of emotional scenery, a very timely and welcome one.
It’s funny how I complain about thru hikers being annoying, but then you really grow to love a certain group of them even though they’re annoying thru hikers. And maybe you are one as well.
If you are enjoying this blog you can subscribe here to get email updates! If you are really enjoying the blog, please buy me a coffee and help me on my PCT journey! ☀️
